Tom Krimigis and the Low Energy Charged Particle detector; the “LECP” investigation, which Krimigis leads, has been returning data from both Voyager spacecraft for 40 years.
Credit: APL

The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has presented its premier honor — the von Karman Award — to Tom Krimigis, eminent space scientist and head emeritus of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

Named for aerodynamics pioneer Theodore von Karman, founder and first president of the IAA, the annual award recognizes outstanding lifetime scientific achievement. In presenting the award on Sept. 24 during its annual Academy Day celebration in Adelaide, Australia, the IAA cited Krimigis for his leadership and scholarship in the space sciences and astronautics, including his discovery and promotion of the physics of energetic particles throughout the solar system and into near-interstellar space; his development of scientific instruments to explore the environments where those particles exist; and his articulation and application of policy-shifting paradigms in robotic space exploration that led to fundamental advances across astronautics.

Krimigis is the only scientist in the world to lead or participate in space physics experiments on all nine classical planets. He has served as a principal investigator on five NASA missions — including the legendary Voyagers and the Cassini Saturn orbiter — and as a co-investigator on many others.

Krimigis has designed, built, flown and analyzed data from 23 instruments on various NASA and European Space Agency missions. His Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument flies aboard both Voyager spacecraft; on Voyager 1, LECP data was essential to determining that a spacecraft had left the solar system for the first time. Krimigis was also instrumental in establishing NASA’s groundbreaking Discovery Program of low-cost planetary missions, as well as the New Frontiers Program, for which the APL-built New Horizons to Pluto was the first mission. He is also a co-investigator on Parker Solar Probe, set to launch in summer 2018.

A native of Chios, Greece, Krimigis earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Minnesota and a master’s and doctorate in physics from the University of Iowa, studying under James Van Allen, the former APL scientist who discovered Earth’s radiation belts. He served on the faculty of the Physics and Astronomy Department at Iowa — where he pioneered the application of solid state detectors to the measurements of energetic particles in space — before joining APL in 1968. He headed the Space Physics and Instrumentation Group, became chief scientist in 1980 and became head of the Space Department in 1991.

As a researcher, Krimigis has published more than 600 articles in scientific journals and books — including findings on solar observations, planetary magnetospheres and the charged particles that flood the space between the planets — and is one of the most cited scientists in his field. Krimigis leads or participates on more than 40 national and international committees, commissions and working groups, including the IAA, International Astronautical Federation, and U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

His numerous honors include the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Space Science Award, Smithsonian Institution Trophy for Achievement, AIAA James A. Van Allen Space Environments Award, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Lifetime Achievement, American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award, three NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement medals and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal — the agency’s highest award to a non-civil servant. He also holds the chair of Space Science and Technology in the Academy of Athens and is a member of Academia Europaea.

The Applied Physics Laboratory, a not-for-profit division of The Johns Hopkins University, meets critical national challenges through the innovative application of science and technology. For more information, visit www.jhuapl.edu.